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Council to discuss Governance at Public Meeting

A Special Committee of the Whole meeting will be held on Monday, May 25 at 6 p.m. in Victoria Hall, Council Chambers to discuss Governance. The public is invited although since it is a C.O.W. meeting, the public will be only observing like any other Council meeting. The Town’s announcement says that Staff were “asked to conduct research and to provide an overall review of various Governance Systems within Ontario Municipalities. The meeting will focus on three different governance models as directed through the outcomes of the 2015 Council Strategic Planning Sessions.”

In the Press release, Deputy Mayor John Henderson said:

“Any organization or corporation including the Town of Cobourg should review its organizational structure every 7-10 years to ensure it is meeting the needs of the community. This council has used the coordinator’s system of governance during the terms of Mayor Read, Chalovich, Dellanty and Brocanier. As Deputy Mayor I am pleased that we have elected to look at the coordinator system along with three other municipal governance structures.” [The term of Mayor Angus Read was 1986 to 1994 - Cobourg Mayors]

The three other municipal governance structures that will be reviewed are the following:

Committee of the Whole (no specific topic specialist), using the Town of Blue Mountain mode;

The Standing Committee Full Council (organized by function) using the City of Thunder Bay as a model; and

A Hybrid Model using the County of Northumberland as a model.

This subject was discussed in February in conjunction with the Strategic Planning session. At that time, more details were available on the three methods of organizing that were being considered. Details here. Subsequently, Council held a meeting in April to hear about the legal implications. Details here.

It is not clear if there is now any support for a change although the idea was pushed early on in this Council’s mandate. The impetus for change is the idea that all councillors should be concerned with all issues if they want to make meaningful decisions and votes. In model # 1 staff would report directly to Council instead of via a coordinator. The counter to that is the idea that no councillor can be an expert or fully briefed on every issue. Staff are resisting a change since they would then interface more with all councillors instead of just one. Should be an interesting discussion.